Celebrities live in the glare of a harsh, unforgiving and unfair spotlight. But what the spotlight illuminates is often, ironically, the darker side of success, and exposes the inner workings of the human mind, which for all the exposure, are beyond public comprehension. We still don’t know the full story of what happened with Owen Wilson, which is fine–we hope he’s on the mend and that we’ll see him out and about again soon. And Lindsay Lohan’s bingeing on men and substances looks likely to continue in the new year.And then there’s what this new year has brought so far for Britney Spears.

Mom and sister are at the grave of mom’s sister. Thursday night, after a disturbance at her home, Britney is taken in by cops to a hospital–it is reported that she “held her sons hostage” after a visit, refusing to give them over to her ex-, Kevin Federline.

The stand-off, which involved five police squad cars, a police helicopter and paramedics, was sparked because Federline thought Spears would shoot their two children, it has been reported. A friend of his said [to] the News of the World: “K-Fed was terrified. He realised she had a gun where she was holding them.”

If you want to experience for a few minutes what it’s like to live your life and watch it unraveling through the eyes of the paparazzi, watch this eerie video and witness the stunned, haunted look on Britney’s face during those few frames in which she appears. It’s disturbing.
Friday, she’s stripped of all visiting rights with her children. Saturday night, she storms out of the psychiatric ward at Cedars Sinai, against the advice of talk show therapist and “family friend” Dr. Phil McGraw, “who is planning a TV special on the case.”

Dr McGraw is said to have told the singer’s father that his daughter’s release was “one of the worst decisions that could have been made”.”My meeting with Britney and some family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention,” he said. It has been suggested that Miss Spears is exhibiting signs of bipolar disorder.

“This is exactly Britney’s trouble,” said one source who knows the shrink personally. “Does a troubled young woman who is already fodder for the media need a TV psychologist descending on her with camera crews? Isn’t there any other psychotherapist in America who can help her without making a show out of her?”

You could literally spend all day on the internet gathering news and pictures about the latest chapter in Britney’s unfortunate meltdown. You could look at the dreadful pictures that were taken as she was strapped to a gurney to be taken to the hospital (as indeed I was doing for this post, before I was sickened by them, and decided to use an older photo to accompany this post). You could devote pages and posts and photos and newsprint and book her into every talk show on daytime. And I’m not sure any good would come of it. It’s not like us posting about her every day is going to get her to get her act together.
Hopefully, this is the low point, and from here on, things will get better: the situation will calm down, and the mini-train wrecks will stop. Let’s all think of all of the children–Britney, Jamie Lynn (haven’t forgotten about her) and Preston and Jayden. And even Chris Crocker, who may have been right after all when he urged the world toleave Britney alone.
If Dr. Phil books her on his show and manages to help her, GREAT. But I can’t be the only one to suspect that maybe the spotlight on Britney, from an early age, is the problem, and not the solution.